Use these
questions to help you identify areas of content that you need to review. There
are NOT free response essays – each question can be answered with a thorough,
thoughtful paragraph or two. Try sorting your key terms note cards according to
the questions.

European Settlement to the Writing of the Constitution

Why was the Albany Plan of Union important?

Why did Native Americans side with France during the French and Indian War?

How did the Seven Years’ War directly affect the colonists’ growing
discontent with the British?

How did the Sugar Act differ from the preceding Navigation Acts?

What forms did colonial protest take?What steps were initially ineffective and what later steps proved
successful?

What choices made by Parliament heightened the pre-Revolutionary era
conflict?

In what ways did the colonies attempt to unite and/or share information? Why
could many colonists rightly claim that the conflict was primarily a Boston
issue?

What were the results of the First Continental Congress?

What was the significance of the “shot heard ‘round the world”?

John Adams once claimed that 1/3 of the colonists supported the revolution,
1/3 opposed it, and 1/3 didn’t really care.What types of people fell into each category?

Which documents most influenced colonial opinion during the Revolutionary
Era?Why?

How did the colonists win the Revolutionary War?

What were the strengths and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
What were the main events of the Critical Period?

Why is the Constitution called “a bundle of compromises”?

What were the positions of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists?

Washington to Jackson

What precedents were established by Washington during his presidency?

What was Hamilton’s economic plan? What was Jefferson’s vision of the U.S.?

What effect did the French Revolution have on America?

What elements of Adams and Jefferson’s presidencies foreshadowed future
conflicts between political parties and geographic regions?

Prior to the 1804 election what problem kept plaguing the presidential
election?

How did Jefferson’s and Adams’ interpretations of the role of Vice-President
differ?

What failed strategies did Jefferson and Madison use to avoid war with
Britain?What eventually led to the
War of 1812?

What were the positive and negative
consequences of the War of 1812?

What factors led to increased national growth during the first two decades
of the 19th century?

What factors led to the Panic of 1819?Which of these factors would lead to additional recessions in future
years?

What was the Monroe Doctrine? How was it received?

What about the 1824 and 1828 elections forever changed election campaigns?

What programs by John Quincy Adams were doomed to failure?Why?

What actions taken by Andrew Jackson directly contrasted with those taken by
Jefferson?

What motivated Jackson’s economic choices?What were the consequences of these choices?

What was the primary consequence of
Nat Turner’s Rebellion?

What was the connection between westward expansion and slavery?How was conflict postponed?

Why was the Whig Party created and what were their beliefs?

Civil War and
Reconstruction

What are the costs
and benefits of a market economy?

How did manufacturing
and industry improve?

What influence did
the textile industry have on industry and society?

What inventions and
innovations opened up the West?

What issues and
developments altered farming? How?

What is the relation
between Manifest Destiny and Oregon, Texas and California?

What were the
economic differences between the North, the South and the West?

What were the costs
and benefits of northern urban life? Of southern rural life?

What steps were taken
to make Westward Expansion successful?

What aspects of
society did Jacksonian social reformers attempt to alter?

During the
abolitionist movement, who were the major participants and what were the
strategies used?

What major events
occurred during the Polk presidency?

What was the platform
of the Know-Nothing Party?

What were the most
important catalysts of the Civil War?

What were the intents
and the actual results of the Reconstruction Amendments?

What were the
different proposed methods or Reconstruction?

How did the South
essentially recreate slavery conditions following the Civil War?

In what ways was
Reconstruction a failure?

Gilded Age

By what means did
captains of industry/robber barons increase their profits?

What problems
resulted from the consolidation of power among a select few?

How did Robber
Barons/Captains of Industry justify their wealth?

What were the
negative effects of urbanization?
Consider the boss system as well as life in the slums.

How effective were
early labor unions in combating widespread misery?

Compare the
motivations and methods used by progressive reformers in fixing the problems
of the Gilded Age?

How did W.E.B. DuBois
and Booker T. Washington differ in how they believed African-Americans
should attain equality?

What were the
positive and negative effects of railroad expansion?

What effect did
Western Expansion have on Native Americans?

What attempts were
made during the Gilded Age to regulate industry and politics?

Compare and contrast
the goals of the Granges, the Farmers’ Alliance, and the Populists?

What types of people
supported “free silver”?Why?

American Imperialism

Why did America adopt
imperialistic policies in the last decade of the 19th century?Why not before?

In what ways could
Cubans, Filipinos, and Hawaiians find fault with US foreign policy in the 19th
Century?

How did US policy
toward Cuba and the Philippines differ? Why?

What was the logic
behind America’s Open Door Policy?

What
anti-imperialistic complaints were lodged against the building of the Panama
Canal? Against the Spanish-American War?

Progressive Era

How successful was
the Progressive Movement? Why did the Populist Movement fail?

What was the most
known muckraking literature? What motivated “muckrakers”?

Who were the key
figures and what were the key issues in the early 20th Century
women’s movement?

What steps were taken
to reduce corruption at the city and state level?

What role did
Presidents take in the Progressive Movement?

World War I and the
Postwar Period

What steps did
America take to prepare economically for war?

How did America
become involved in World War I?Why
did they enter on the side of the British?

What events helped
change American public opinion from one of neutrality to one of
intervention?

To what extent were
civil liberties abused during World War I?

To what extent did
the techniques and ideologies employed by the Committee on Public
Information transfer afterward to the policies employed during the Red
Scare?

How did World War I
affect African-Americans and women?

What were Woodrow
Wilson’s main goals in his Fourteen Points? To what extend were Woodrow
Wilson’s idealistic views accepted by Americans and the world?

The Jazz Age/The
Roaring Twenties

In what ways did the
policies of Harding, Coolidge and Hoover reverse the successes of the
Progressive Era?

What was the effect
of the consumer products of the 1920s on social behavior?

How did the Harlem
Renaissance represent a shift in the role of African-Americans in society?

How did the conflict
between fundamentalism and modernism show that America was not ready for
immigration, race relations, and social changes?

The Great
Depression and the New Deal

What were the primary
catalysts of the Great Depression?

How did the homeless
and farmers respond to the Great Depression?

What choices made by
Herbert Hoover guaranteed that he would not be reelected in 1932?

What choices made by
Roosevelt improved the banking situation?

How did Roosevelt
respond to massive unemployment?

What complaints did
both conservatives and liberals have with Roosevelt’s policies?

Why did Roosevelt
attempt to “pack” the courts and what was the reaction to this choice?

Why did America
reenter a recession in 1937?

In what ways was the
New Deal successful?Unsuccessful?

World War II

How did America’s
foreign policy toward Latin America change in the 1920s and 1930s?

What choices were
made during Roosevelt’s administration to keep America out of war?

Though America was
technically neutral, what choices showed that they truly were participating
in the war?

What events led to
the attack on Pearl Harbor?

How was 1944 a
shift in where and how America fought Germany?

How did government
take more control of America’s economy during the war?

In what ways was
World War II a “total war” effort?

What were the goals
of Yalta and Potsdam?

Why did America
drop the atomic bombs?Why was this
choice criticized?

The Cold War to the
Present

What were the main
foreign policy issues facing the US following World War II?

To what extent were
containment, NATO, and the Marshall Plan extensions of the Truman Doctrine?

How did MacArthur
and Truman differ on the handling of the Korean War?

What international
and domestic conditions led to the Red Scare of the 1950s?

In what ways did
Eisenhower’s “New Conservatism” translate to how the federal government
dealt with labor relations?

During the 1950s in
what ways was America taking steps forward toward racial integration? In
what ways was it not?

What domestic
policies did Eisenhower undertake during the 1950s?

During the 1950s, in
what ways did the US respond to the spread of Communism?

In what ways did
America respond to nationalism in Third World nations?

What were links
between Kennedy’s “New Frontier” and Johnson’s “Great Society”?

How was Cuba the
sight of Kennedy’s greatest foreign policy success and worst foreign policy
fiasco?

To what extent was
Johnson more successful with his social programs than Kennedy?

From the 1950s
through the 1960s, how did the African-American methods of attaining
equality evolve?

Aside from
African-American Civil Rights, in response to what other societal issues was
the New Left formed?

How did Johnson’s
handling of Vietnam differ from that of his predecessors?

Why was 1968
considered a turning point in US history?

What strategy was
employed by Nixon to end American involvement in Vietnam?

What events led to
Nixon’s resignation? In what areas was he successful?